Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Source: Own Collection
Format: Paperback
Rating:  4 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

This book is a hilarious juxtaposition to the ordinary children’s book. In normal books, the children have adventures and the grownups don’t believe them. In this book, those roles are reversed with hilarious consequences. And no, I won’t be mentioning Professor Steg, the pirates, the space aliens (not to mention the space police) and a wonderful cast of other characters.

Highly inventive and beautifully chaotic, this tale is a romp. A very quick read for an accomplished reader, it will entertain.

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Source: Own collection
Format: Hardback
Rating:  5 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

I read this as part of The Time Traveller’s Almanac, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

What an excellent story. I thought this would be my first reading of it, but as the travellers arrived back in the past, the description of the metal walkways immediately threw images into my mind that assured me I’ve either read this story before or seen pictures depicting the events. Either way.

Ray Bradbury has an interesting style of writing, building images upon images to create a sense of (for example) just how large a T-Rex is. I was drawn into the action with ease, and one really feels for the main character as he realises things are way out of his control. And, of course, the tale devolves from there to a rather terminal conclusion (very well done!).

I highly recommend this book to lovers of time travel.

Triceratops Summer by Michael Swanwick

Source: Own collection
Format: Hardback
Rating:  3 Stars
Reviewer: Laurel

I read this as part of The Time Traveller’s Almanac, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer.

If you want to imagine Triceratops in modern America, then this is your story. The main character comes across a herd of Triceratops wandering across the road he’s on, and life gets fun from there. A largely amusing read, it considers what people will do when they know there’s a wobble in the time continuum.